My name is Devon Rudd and I am the Netminder for the Whitley Mischief's. We are an under 10's team from Whitley Bay in the North East of England and we play out of Hillheads Ice Arena.
My interest into hockey started last year when I received free tickets to a Newcastle Vipers game from school. That was it, I was hooked and my Dad looked into finding skating lessons for me. I began the "Rookies" skating prgramme at Whitley Bay and within a few weeks I was asked if I wanted to try and learn hockey and more importantly the role of Netminder. This was great for me as goalie was my favourite position. There's just something so cool about the goalie, the mask, the pads, the way they have to be fearless and are afraid of nothing.
Since then I went on to complete my first season as Netminder, and although we were short on team members and we lost every game by default for this I had a great time. Travelling the length of the country I made many new friends and had some great fun along the way.
I was lucky enough to receive coaching from Thomas Murdy, who is now Coventry Blaze's Netminder and also Andrew Verner. Andrew is one of the greats in the net and was playing for Newcastle Vipers at the time, but now is a Sheffield Steeler. Andrew "Magic" Verner has played for Edmonton Oilers and Team Canada as well as some of Europe's finest teams. I learnt a lot from Verns and loved the time I spent with him training, a true great.
Throughout the year I picked up many trophies for Spirit of the Game, tournaments and my most treasured trophy (so far) was for being Whitley Mischief's MVP (most valuable player) at our end of year awards ceremony. Leading out my favourite team, Whitley Warriors on several occasions as mascot was also a great honour for me as well as presenting their trophies at their awards ceremony to some of my favourite players.
So it was an exciting year for me and this has prompted me to write this blog, not only to document our new season but also to hopefully bring others into junior hockey as it really is great fun, not to mention an awesome way to stay fit as well.
I've made some great friends through hockey and hope to make even more this season.
Take care and enjoy the blog.
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